U.S. Climate Stance ‘Blowing Negotiations Apart,’ Envoy Says

Dec. 7 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. view that no new global
climate deal is possible before 2020 is derailing negotiations
aimed at slashing the world’s oil and coal emissions, according
to an envoy at the talks.

“The present U.S. position of no new agreement until post-2020 is really blowing negotiations apart,” Papua New Guinea’s
chief climate delegate, Kevin Conrad, said in an interview in
Durban, South Africa, where United Nations-led climate talks are
divided over when to seek a new treaty to curb global warming.

The U.S. won’t begin talks until China and India agree to
take on legally binding actions without preconditions. In the
meantime, countries should focus between now and 2020 on a
voluntary emissions-cutting pact reached last year, according to
U.S. lead climate negotiator Todd Stern. Other countries say
it’s crucial to pursue a stronger agreement now.

The European Union is pressing for a new treaty by 2015 and
says it won’t move ahead with cuts under the Kyoto Protocol, the
world’s only climate treaty, without a commitment from all
nations to negotiate a new pact. The 27-nation bloc so far has
shown no signs of softening its position during the two-week UN
talks that end Dec. 9, leaving the future of Kyoto in doubt.

Kyoto’s rules helped spur carbon trading and created the
Clean Development Mechanism, generating $26.5 billion of credits
and secondary trading of $68.2 billion, accounting for 18
percent of the carbon market since 2005, according to data from
the World Bank. UN carbon credit prices have tumbled 54 percent
since June partly because of concern the Kyoto limits on
emissions won’t be extended.

‘Kyoto 2’

Canada, Russia and Japan say they won’t continue under
Kyoto after an initial phase of cuts expires next year. The U.S.
never ratified Kyoto because it doesn’t require mandatory action
from China, the world’s bigger carbon emitter.

Meanwhile, China, India and Brazil are pushing industrial
nations to extend Kyoto, saying any climate pact must recognize
the historical responsibility of the nations that caused the
problem to act first.

The EU should continue in Kyoto while also seeking new
partnerships with China, Brazil, Mexico, South Africa and India,
Clini said in Durban. “We have to design a new geography for
the global alliance to fight climate change,” he said. “We can
start a new future Kyoto 2.”

Legally Binding

While the U.S. isn’t against the notion of a legally
binding treaty, Stern says it won’t begin negotiations because
China, India and other big emerging economies aren’t yet willing
to be equally bound by such an agreement.

At the center of the climate discord is a 2007 UN agreement
reached in Bali, Indonesia, that treats China, India, Brazil and
other big developing countries differently than industrialized
nations. At the time, Bush administration negotiators reversed
opposition to the pact following public pressure from other
countries including Papua New Guinea.

“If you cannot lead, leave it to the rest of us,” Conrad
said during a final plenary session at the 2007 Bali meeting.
“Get out of the way.”

President Barack Obama, who promised to help lead
international efforts to fight climate change, failed to set a
cap on U.S. greenhouse-gas emissions amid widespread opposition
from lawmakers and businesses.

“Mr. Obama believes in it but can’t do anything about it,
from what I can see,” former U.K. Deputy Prime Minister John
Prescott said today in Durban. The U.S.’s refusal to participate
in Kyoto is “scandalous,” he said.